We’ve come to the end of a four year term with U.S President Joe Biden. During his last few weeks in office, Biden made a historical decision to commute thousands of criminal offenders from their sentences. In one day, 1,500 people were released from house arrest, and 37 out of 40 federal inmates were given grace to have their death sentences changed to life in prison. The 3 federal inmates who did not get their sentences commuted are Robert Bowers, who took the lives of 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing; and Dylan Roof, responsible for the 9 lives taken at Mother Emanuel AME Church. The other 37 federal inmates that were commuted were also responsible for various heinous crimes, but this grand gesture of mercy was Biden’s attempt to showcase his strong belief that the death penalty should be eliminated. Biden’s decision was praised by many organizations that also support ending the death penalty including the Coalition of Human Rights but was also heavily ridiculed by those who believe lessening the punishment for violent criminals is an appalling choice that sends the wrong message. In a public statement addressing the largest commutation in history, Biden stated, “Make no mistake, I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts; but guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at a federal level.” Former assistant U.S Attorney Steve Melon opposes these viewpoints and sides with the idea of maintaining the death penalty and keeping assailants accountable with their sentences. “We are sacrificing the safety, and security and concerns of the American public, and the family members of those who were adversely affected directly by this while the present has given a Christmas present to these 37 out of 40 death row inmates.”
Criticism – Four Perspectives
Getting out of a death sentence may be a joyful relief for those behind bars, but a painful injustice for their victims’ families. NBC News spoke with one of the federal prisoners who received Biden’s commute, Billie Allen. Allen has been in prison for 26 years and spoke of his reaction to the news of his commute. “Honestly it shocked me. You know, let me make sure I’m reading this right. When it hit, I was excited and the people I thought about the most is my family, the relief this will give them.” Family seems to be a common denominator on both sides of all criminal cases. Families of prisoners want them free, families of victims don’t want them to see the light of day. Trump’s Transition Team aren’t happy about Biden’s decision to set so many people free from their judgments and plan to not only resume federal executions when Trump is back in office, but expand the federal executions during his next term in office. The team stated, “These are amongst the worst killers in the world.. abhorrent decision by Joe Biden. A slap in the face to the victims, their families and their loved ones.”
No Deal
2 of the federal inmates granted a lesser sentence by Biden rejected their commutes. Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis are both inmates of the U.S Penitentiary in Terre Haute Indiana. Soon after Biden’s signing of the new order, Agofsky and Davis’s lawyers filed emergency motions in federal court for an injunction that would actually keep them on death row. They believe having their sentences commuted would do more harm than good as they have spent years appealing their cases based innocence. Agofsky’s file states “To commute his sentence now, while the defendant has active litigation in court, is to strip him of the protection of heightened scrutiny. This constitutes as an undue burden, and leaves the defendant in a position of fundamental unfairness, which would decimate his pending appellate procedures.” Agofsky was convicted of the 1989 murder of Dan Short, a bank president found in a lake in Oklahoma and stealing $71,000. Jury declined to convict him of murder but gave a life sentence for the robbery. Then another situation occurred in a Texas prison in 2004 when Agofsky was convicted of participating in the stomping death of a fellow inmate. That is what sealed the deal and got him on death row. Davis is a former New Orleans police office convicted of the 1994 loss of Kim Groves. Groves had filed a complaint against Davis, accusing him of physically assaulting a teenager. Soon after, according to court reports, Davis hired someone to put a hit out on her. Both Davis and Agofsky have refused to sign their commute papers. They are claiming innocence and asking to be appointed a co-counsel. Davis file states “He has always maintained that having a death sentence would draw attention to the overwhelming misconduct he alleges against the Department of Justice.”
This cluster of public arguments have sparked a worldwide debate on the necessity and effectiveness of the death penalty being used as capital punishment. Even amongst prisoners facing lengthy or fatal sentences there is a mixed reaction of accepting their fate; as some prisoners fight for their innocence and others believe they truly deserve capital punishment for what they’ve done. Is it fair to take a life for a life? Is it fair to show mercy to someone, who had no mercy for their victim? There’s a moral divide between those who see it as cruel and others who see it as necessary. The founder of Equal Justice Initiative, Bryon Stevenson believes that issue isn’t really in the moralities, but rather the justice system itself. “The question is not whether people deserve to die for the crimes they have committed. The question is whether we deserve to kill. If we have a flawed, biased, unreliable system, we cannot impose this perfect punishment with an imperfect system.”
Biden is in office until January 20, 2025 and plans to continue reviewing clemency petitions during that time.
